


Drawing on Missing Posters

by Lady_of_Greenwood



Category: Vampire Chronicles - Anne Rice
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-03
Updated: 2013-11-03
Packaged: 2017-12-31 09:10:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1029887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_of_Greenwood/pseuds/Lady_of_Greenwood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lestat will always find ways to surprise Louis. And something will always give him a reason to do so. And they might not always be fun.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drawing on Missing Posters

"Louis…"  
  
I looked up from the thick, leather-bound novel in my lap - and old, yellowed and dogeared thing I had taken with me from our quarters in the Rue Royale - and my eyes sought out Lestat. He was lounging on the soft red velvet couch facing the fireplace, long legs thrown over one armrest and arms folded on the other. His sharp, violet eyes lay on me with the intenseness of a predator watching its prey at the watering hole while his body projected nothing but all consuming boredom.  
  
I repressed a sigh and stuck my thumb in between the pages, ready to fold the on I was currently reading in case he came up with an idea he needed my "cooperation" for.  
  
"Oui, what is it?" I asked him.  
He buried his face deeper into his arms so that only the part above his nose was visible to me and he bend his right leg at the knee. To the world he looked like a dejected youth, but to me he looked like he was planning something. I could almost see the thoughts taking shape inside his mind, a mind sharper than I could ever hope for but so young and mischievous that he got himself into trouble more often than even the most rebellious of this century.  
  
I raised an eyebrow at him when he shook his head softly. "Nothing, it's - it's nothing", he said as he raked a hand through his glossy yellow hair with a gesture that looked decidedly too human for him.  
  
"What is wrong?" I asked again, feeling slight concern for him as he avoided my gaze. "You are acting quite strange."  
  
Lestat groaned and pushed himself onto his knees, back arched like that of a big, light bronze cat, hair spilling loosely over his shoulders. He was truly beautiful in his own, eery and graceful way, like something that had escaped the confines of a dream to haunt the living world and my world with its perfection, with its fire and passion. Even now, when he was wearing nothing but a normal pair of stonewashed jeans and a sweatshirt from the local college which he had acquired a few weeks ago. Something about moving amongst the students undetected. How he could stay undetected when only one look could reduce me to a lovestruck fool was beyond me. But I had to banish those thoughts now as Lestat rightened himself and turned towards me.  
  
He chewed on his bottom lip for a few moments, one fang digging deep into the smooth flesh that always seemed so alluring to his victims - and me, if I was honest - but I refrained from reaching out to pull it away from his teeth and just waited for him to be ready.  
  
After a while Lestat finally met my searching gaze. "Why are you staying with me?"  
  
I am not sure why but he still manages to catch me off guard even after all our years together. He surprised me with the rats back at Pointe du Lac, with his sometimes more somber moods at Rue Royale, and the time he published his book and music. He surprised me so many times over the decades that I should be used to it by now but, as he had proven this very moment, he would alway find a way to surprise me anew.  
  
I snatched a small piece of paper from the armrest of my chair, marked my page and put the book aside before I folded my hands in my lap patiently. "Why would you ask such a thing?"  
  
He groaned again, falling heavily against the back of the couch and pressed the palms of his hands into his eyes in frustration. "Because I want to know!" His whole frame relaxed suddenly. "I want to know, because I am well aware that I am annoying." A sigh. "I'm annoying and pushy and arrogant and snobby and I talk to much and never consider the feelings of others ---" he would've gone on if I hadn't bridged the distance between us quickly to take his hands in mine.  
  
I didn't know where all this had come from so suddenly but, now that I think about it, it scared me. It scared the hell out of me.  
  
"Why would you say that?" I asked quietly, trying to control the tremor in my voice. "That isn't true."  
  
"Oh, but it is!" Lestat said, taking his hands back, and jumped up. He began pacing and I watched him from where I kneeled on the floor. "I only think of myself and never how my actions affect others. I am reckless, obnoxious and rash. Even Marius says so! No, especially Marius says so. Hell, even Maharet and Mekare would say so if they were here!"  
  
I was speechless. Not a reaction he usually provoked in me as I was usually the one to throw something snarky back in his direction when he got ahead of himself.  
  
"I mean, I know all this and I usually don't have a problem with it", he kept on talking, voice getting shriller and words tumbling from his lips faster with each passing second. "But I keep wondering how someone can put up with that! How can someone be so close to me for so long and not hate me?!"  
  
I knew I had to put an end to this before Lestat convinced himself of these things. So I once again stepped up to him and took his hands in mine, angling my body so that he had to look into my eyes.  
  
"What has gotten into you?" I asked softly, releasing one of his hands to brush soft, blond waves out of his face.  
  
Lestat sighed. "It's just something I overheard a few students say in the cafe today", he murmured, leaning into my caress. "They were talking about my books…or our books since yours was basically the first. No matter how wrongly you portrayed me." The last he said with a kind of affectionate bitterness that lifted my heart. But I also felt a cold anger inside me as he mentioned those students. How dare they "smash" his work like this! Unforgivable!  
  
"Well, I do not think I was completely wrong in some aspects." I pulled him closer, winding my arms around his waist. "You are quite annoying and arrogant, reckless and rash, not to mention loud and obnoxious! A true brat prince, for sure! The damnedest creature I have ever met."  
  
He was looking at me now, eyes big and questioning and slightly fearful even. Their words must have been cutting when even he, who was usually immune to the critiques of others, was so hurt by them.  
  
"But, you also always find a way to set the things right which you have upset, to touch upon even the most ancient of hearts. You are a young and joyful soul that captivates others, that has managed to captivate even the queen and her heart. You break into song when you're happy, you yell when you are angry, you fret when you are worried and you never hide what you feel." I smiled at him and the soft blush on his white cheeks. "You manage to make everyone you meet love you as they fear you. Not one merely likes you, there is only love and hate with you. And you should know that most love you, and I do so most of all."  
  
He was silent for a while, eyeing me and probably searching me for a lie, before he cocked his head sideways and let a small smirk play across his lips.  
  
"Does your throat hurt from talking so much now?" Lestat asked, mischief playing in his eyes.  
  
I laughed lightly. "Maybe. I normally do not talk that much."  
  
He smiled wickedly. "Usually you don't talk almost at all", he pointed out. "Only with Daniel Malloy! There you talked a hell of a lot more than you did with me over the years! And what you said! So many lies and misinterpretations I have rarely seen!"  
  
The twisting in my stomach was something I used to feel quite often when we discussed my book but not anymore. Lestat always did these things, where he made my book seem like one long joke and pulled it into the dirt. I didn't mind, it was a habit between us.  
  
"Maybe I am the only one who saw you for what you were", I said as I released him and sat back in my chair. I ignored the pout on his lips and went back to my book. There was a phrase I had heard a few times on television. What had it been again? Oh yes: "Crisis averted."  
  
He huffed in my general direction before he threw himself onto the armrest of my chair, draping himself over the red plush so that I couldn't reach my book. "Now that that is over, let's go hunting!"  
  
We did and the next day missing posters of a few certain college students flooded the city.  
  
I smiled at them and watched Lestat as he doodled small mustaches onto the black and white faces. His smile was back and as genuine as it had always been -- wide and beaming.  
  
And that was how it was supposed to be.


End file.
